The Need

It has been more than 40 years since the last meaningful civil service reform. Even as the challenges facing the nation have changed dramatically, the system governing more than two million federal civilian employees has remained stuck in the past, serving as an impediment rather than an aid in attracting, hiring, retaining, and managing a highly skilled workforce. The need for civil service modernization is paramount.

The Response

Working together, and guided by an advisory panel, the Partnership for Public Service and the Volcker Alliance developed a set of recommendations to renew America’s civil service.

The U.S. government’s approach to recruiting, developing and retaining a highly skilled workforce requires modernization to keep pace with the changing market for talent. We believe that America needs a civil service that:
• Can deliver effective and efficient government to meet the most critical challenges facing the American people,
• Is independent, free from undue political influence, and preserves the Merit System Principles,
• Reflects the increasing need for knowledge-based skills in the rapidly changing, complex, globalized environment in which government operates, and
• Upholds a culture of excellence in service that will inspire trust from the American people and attract the best and brightest into public service.

Some recommended opportunities for reform include:

Recruitment and Hiring: Only 6 percent of federal employees are in their 20s, compared with 21 percent of employees in the private sector, and that already low number is dropping. Furthermore, in 2017, agencies took an average of 106 days to hire employees. The entire hiring process should be overhauled, beginning by passing legislation pending in the Senate to enable faster hiring of students and recent graduates. The federal government can become a more competitive employer by streamlining hiring and doing a better job of identifying the best pools of candidates for open jobs.

Leadership development: Our government should provide employees increased opportunities for continuous learning. The civil service needs mandatory training for managers and supervisors, growth paths for future leaders in both management and technical roles, and meaningful performance management that provides incentives to recognize and reward good performers and do a better job of handling issues surrounding poor performers. We also need to ensure that the Senior Executive Service is a world-class cadre of managers who are empowered to tackle our nation’s most pressing problems by working across the federal enterprise.

Workforce agility: Our nation benefits when skilled professionals want to spend their careers in public service. At the same time, our nation is missing out on the opportunity to tap the talents of those willing to serve for shorter tenures. Legislation pending in the Senate would take sensible steps to remedy that situation. We can bring public service more in line with the nimble model common in the private sector, including through public-private talent exchanges and options for federal employees to rotate into different positions.

Pay and Classification: The federal compensation system is almost 70 years old, designed for clerical workers and not for professionals with the highly specialized skills needed for today’s knowledge-based economy. An occupation-specific, market-sensitive compensation system will attract and retain people with the skills needed to better serve the public.

Engagement from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue:  The last major revision of civil service laws, the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, was successful because the president and both political parties worked toward a civil service system that would serve the American people more effectively, regardless of which party controlled the White House or the Congress. Making lasting changes today will require the same type of collaboration on the planning, implementation, resource investment, and oversight of modernization.